Coursework #1: The Beginning

I have decided to work with my friend Lewis. As of now, we have decided to do thriller but that's about the extent of where we are at, we are still very unsure about what sub-genre or what subject matter we are going to tackle. We are also undecided on whether we will edit together or not. The plan for now is that we will plan and act out the scenes together but we will edit the footage with our on vision of what the product should be like.

One thing that I think will be a very important part of our project is the soundtrack which will play a huge part in creating the mood and the tone. I have started finding royalty free music websites and looking around for suspenseful music. I am deciding whether to go for orchestral or techno base music, both of them would be used similarly but they with both be significantly different as you could imagine

I have always struggle with finding the right location that will support the narrative since the start of media. I have suggested our school's lake which would be perfect for our story. It is also much easier to be given allowance to use it. The other setting that could potentially be used is the headquarters of the detective, this would be fairly simple as we could just use our school offices. The last setting that is inconsideration is a dark alleyway, we were thinking that the detective could be doing some detective work there and investigating, it could also give us a great chance to explore lighting and camerawork.

This is the first idea that I had come up with, the genre is going to be thriller and the sub genre is crime. Here is how it goes:

1) Dead body on canoe in the middle of harrow late at dawn.
2) Someone finds the body at dawn.
3) Camera pans up to the sun and starts a time lapse with credits running over
4) Cuts to 2 detectives examining the dead body.
5) Detectives find clues and go back to their headquarters.
6) They talk over what these could mean.

After I suggested these ideas to Lewis he disagreed with certain parts of it. He didn't think that film openings should have time leaps and should be fairly close together. So I came up with a new take on the idea.

1) The victim is still alive and well doing their things
2) the victim is lured out by the killer
3) victim talks to killer who is in the shadow
4) the killer kills the victim quietly
5) puts him on the boat and pushes it out
6) smokes cigarette and goes back into the shadow

We then discussed a little bit more, Lewis then had the idea of the narrative following the killer instead. I was sceptical but decided to think of the story anyways so this is what I came up with

1) the victim is lured out by the killer
2) victim talks to killer who is in the shadow
3) the killer comes out exposing himself and killing the victim
4) killer puts victim in canoe and pushes it out
5) daybreak comes and its the killer taking the photo of the scene with the victim
6) he the walks away before the dead body is discovered
7) the killer walks away and watches the investigator from afar

These were the initial ideas that Lewis and I had.

American Sniper Opening Analysis

This is the opening scene of the biographical war drama film released in 2014, American Sniper. This is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Bradley Cooper as the main character Chris Kyle who was killed in February of 2013.

This is an amazingly done opening scene that is suspenseful and tense. It perfectly teases us with a heart racing well crafted action scene and sets up the rest of the movie and especially Chris Kyle's backstory.

The first few scenes is shown to setup the threat, show us the setting, put us right in the action and build up tension with the extremely realistic portrayal of war. We firstly have a shot of a gigantic tank which immediately puts us on edge, it also shows us soldiers which tells us that they are at war somewhere. We then have a wide shot which shows us what kind of terrain and situation we are working with. We also see Chris Kyle and his spotter on the roof.

We are then shown Chris Kyle’s scope which is gives us Chris Kyle’s point of view and consequently his perspective. Putting us even more in his place. This is much more important later on. We see a man on a communication device who Chris Kyle has located. Chris asks for advice but is told to make the decision himself. He then goes to adjust his scope suggesting that he is considering shooting. But before then the man moves away

Right after that a (presumably) a mother and a child comes out of a building. We do not know what their motives are just like Chris in that situation. He then asks for advice on what he should do however, once again he has to make his own decision. The mother then pulls out something from her pocket and gives it to the child. It’s an RPG shell. He has to make the call whether to shoot the kid or not. Not doing so could mean harm for his comrades, doing so would be extremely unethical and hard to mentally cope for any man. This is where the first person POV looking through the scopes is so so important. It makes us ask ourselves “What would we have done in that situation?”. We then cut to Chris’ finger which is on the trigger ready to shoot, it slowly inches closer bringing us to the edge of our seat. Before the trigger is pulled we cut to the past, with us, the audience brimmed with excitement and intrigue.

Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is a process of dividing people into homogeneous subgroups based upon defined criterion such as product usage, demographics, psycho-graphics, communication behaviors and media use.

Divided into specific group - focus   -Marketing
                                                           -satisfy need/wants

Can be segmented by:

• Gender
• Age
• Race/Ethnicity
• Fears (experience)
• Personality
• Occupation
• Interests
• Wealth
• Class

Class Population Distribution

Zodiac interrogation scene composition recreation

Unused shots

Panic Room credits

Today we looked at the conventional structure of opening credits using Panic Room (Fincher, 2002). As you can see there is a definite order (begining with institutions and ending with director) that we can use for our opening.

The first names that we see are names of production companies and studio. The are extremely important in the process fo creating a film or any type of media to be honest. This means that the credits start off with the most important things first since the audience is more likely to care about it.

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures
• HOFFLUND/POLONE
• INDELIBLE

Right after the production companies, we come to the stars of the movie who are obviously very important, but even more important in the eye of the public because without them there wouldn't be a movie right? 

Main Cast

• Jodie Foster
• Forest Whitaker
• Dwight Yoakam
• Jared Leto

Then we see the title card, which is also very important. This is also a signal that after this the importnace of the name will decrease.

TITLE

And as we see here, we are seeing the names of the less important cast members

Supporting Cast

• Kristen Stewart
• Ann Magnuson
• Ian Buchanan
• Patrick Bauchau
• Paul Schulze

Right after that the staff members that no one will remember the name of. However, we started with the unknown members of staff, but it gradually gets more and more important from directort of cinematography to producer to writer and then the most important staff member which is even more important than the actors, the director.

Staff

• Laray Mayfield - casting
• Michael Kaplan - costume designer
• Howard Shore - music
• James Haygood - editor
• Angus Wall - editor
• Arthur Max - production designer
• Conrad W. Hall - director of cinematography
• Darius Khondji - director of cinematography
• Gavin Polone - producer
• Judy Hofflund - producer
• David Koepp - producer
• Cean Chaffin - producer
• David Koepp - writer
• David Fincher - director

Zodiac

Zodiac (2007)

Director: David Fincher

• Se7en
• Fight Club
• Panic Room
• Gone Girl
• The girl with the Dragon tattoo
• The Social Network
• The curious case of Benjamin Button

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Non-fiction, Fiction

Main cast:

• Mark Rufallo 
• Jake Gyllenhall

Narrative Range

Unrestricted

Audience knows more than characters

Restricted

The audience learns information/plot at the same time as the character

Showing the big picture - omnipotent

Long shots

Wide shots

High angle

Birds eye view - taxi scene

tracking shot

Long takes       

Details 

Close ups

Insert shots - we learn with the characters basically in their point of view

                   - bombardment with detail

Characters

Graysmith

• Dedicated 
• Obsessed 
• Curious
• Friendly
• Motivated
• Passionate
• Innocent
• Unrealistic

Toschi

• Hardworking
• Idealistic
• Devoted
• Lawful
• Stylish
• Loyal
• Realistic
• Logical

Why do we watch scary films?

• Sadistic
• Masochistic
• Subversive
• test yourself
• It's different
• normal entertainment 

Aristotle

Catharsis

We purge/cleanse our own negative/violent feeling by watching/consuming/experiencing violent, negative imagery 

Dolf Zilman

Excitation transfer theory

The negative emotions gained from violent/scary/negative imagery  - intensify the positive

Glen D Walters

What do films NEED to be scary?

1) Tension - Create use of micro-elements and manipulation information and narrative

2) Relevance - The fear generated has to be relevant to the audience and believed

3) Unrealism - The audience 

Breaking bad opening analysis

HOW DO THE MICRO-ELEMENTS COMBINE TO CREATE MEANING IN THIS CLIP?

In this segment, we are first introduced to Walter White (portrayed by Bryan Cranston). The first scene is of him and his son arriving at school in a old pale puke green car which is visibly old, suggesting that Walter White’s financial status is not really in a good position right now. We can also see that his kid is disabled, showing that he is an unfortunate man in every aspect.

We then cut to a second scene where he is in a classroom ready to teach chemistry. We then see him start to teach chemistry, it is very clear from the get go that he is passionate about chemistry by way he is talking and acting. He then lights the bunsen burner. As he is talking we cut between a behind the back shot of Walter White and a medium shot where the camera if placed in the audience/students, this allows us to feel as if we were learning in the classroom with him making the aura of him teaching even more pronounced than before. This is a symbolism for his passion for chemistry: after it is lit, it is included in every shot afterwards. He was even able to make some of his students intrigued,  at this point Walter still had the power over the class. To elaborate on his power, the students were still focusing and paying attention. However, as soon as he addressed Chad, he lost all of his power as there was a disruption in the peace and quiet. In a way Chad accomplished a part of his goal, which was to disrupt the class as he dragged his chair across the floor causing a loud disturbing noise.

The most interesting symbolism in the last scene however isn’t the bunsen burner, but actually the contrast between himself and the chemistry props. Walter White is wearing a beige jumper which is symbolising of his dull and boring life, on the other hand, the chemistry, represented here by the spray bottles are colourful and vibrant. This emphasises his passion for chemistry, and how it is the colour, light in his life. It is the only thing he has in this dreaded life of his.

The next scene is at a car wash. This is very important because it confirms the point that Walter White is in a financial struggle since he is forced to work two jobs. He is then told by his boss that he has to go wash the cars because they are short handed. Walter tries to negotiate with his boss as he does not want to go out in public fearing that someone might see him like this. However his efforts were all for nothing, his boss still had power over him. This then leads into confronting Chad in the most embarrassing and humiliating way possible. Walter White was crouched down and washing the car tires when without him even in the shot, we can hear his voice, it was Chad and Walter was washing Chad’s car. Chad was literally and metaphorically looking down on White. You can see White’s facial expression change, his face losing all colour, but there was nothing he can do while being ridiculed by Chand and his girlfriend, he just has to accept it and keep it inside of him. This goes into another comparison, Walter’s car and Chad cars is extremely different. Walter’s car is old and a family car, the colour represents his dull life and so does Chad’s. He has an orange supercar, the orange represents his youth and his rebellious stage, it shows that he’s enjoying life unlike Walter. It also shows that Chad lives an over privileged life and is spoilt, he somehow has the money to buy a supercar even when he’s a high school student.

The last scene is of Walter White going home from the car wash. He is travelling home alone and his glove box was open. He then reaches overs to close it up. He pushed it in but it fell back down, he kept trying but to no avail. The editing during this ordeal was very choppy and quick to convey the desperation in Walter White. This whole thing once again symbolises the failings of his life and the nose dive situation his life is facing. Walter White is trying to keep it together and trying his damnedest to improve it but as shown by the glove box, he has no effect on it whatsoever. There is nothing he can do. This all shows that he has no power in life at all, he’s always being the one that is being controlled by other things even a glove box. This is with the exception with chemistry however, that is the only time where he has some kind of power.

Annabelle trailer remake evaluation

I had arrived late into the class and curriculum. This meant that i had to immediately put into action, which was quite jarring considering I had just arrived. No matter, I was put in a group that I was very comfortable with, Ohm, Nana and Eye were all great at what they do so I rest assured.

We got to filming the rest of the scenes instantly. I asked them various questions, too many questions, about what they are doing and planning to do. I then learned that we were doing a remake of the Annabelle trailer remake. The shot's they have filmed beforehand were great so we just focused on the scenes we haven't filmed yet. It turned out that there was no one in the role of the husband yet so I was offered to do it. It was a conversation scene between the MC and her husband so I wanted to create tension so I suggested putting the camera behind the one of the character whilst the other spoke. That was my first experience at acting in media studies and it may have been brief scene that I had to act in but I was happy with what I did.

I also suggested that we took some sound samples by using marker pens to create screeches on the whiteboard since I saw Nana do it and thought it would have been a good idea to just record it in case we needed it for further use during editing.

We consulted each other about the others scenes and went to different locations to film all of the scene. The next scene we had to recreate a scene which happened in the house so we had to somehow make it feel like we were in a house even though we were obviously in Rayleigh Center. Another thing we had to do was recreate a wooden door with a big gap, we had to get creative and use the sofas instead.

One of the scenes was of the main character running down the hall way, so we decided to go to the science block's female bathroom corridor as it has always been an eerie place. In that shot we were trying to instill the sense of fear and not being to run away from it. I suggested that we do a low angle shot on Eye's leg while she was running to put the audience right in the action.

I learned a lot from this experience, I wasn't able to do much but it made me realize just how fun Media Studies and filming was. I came in uninvited and was put into a great group, I was a little bit too excited and might have been rude and caused some trouble for them. However, I have now realized that filming is a collaboration and we should always listen to other people's opinion and that we should not push our ideas onto other people, only try to convince them. I look forward to doing more of these fun projects.